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Rating  - Good book but a little obvious at times
Well-written and good mix of economics and psychology and practical/every-day issues, but a little obvious at points
Rating  - A little dense and not my cup of tea
The sub title of the book "Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness" should have been a hint at what the book was really about which is "choice architecture" a way to further "libertarian paternalism" meaning that if choices are presented to you in a certain way, you'll make better choices and it'll seem like you're making the choice of your own free will instead of being "nudged" into making the "right" choice.
I'm a big fan of learning why we make the types of choices we make and possibly how to influence those choices. I'm also a big fan of learning how to make better choices for myself.
This book, however, leans heavily to the public policy side of things like how to get people to choose more wisely for retirement savings and the like. It really isn't about Health, Wealth and Happiness. It's about creating systems to "nudge" people into making choices they might not otherwise make.
Rating  - Review of Nudge (Thaler and Sunstein)
This is a fascinating book. It is well-written, and offers a lot of information about Behavioral Economics, with many interesting examples.
Rating - This book is a great challenge
If I can read this book and am not internally conflicted at times, that should scare you (as it may indicate that I think my preferences are always best); however, the book's premise is so valid that the concept must be not only fleshed out in detail, but it must be implemented in some fashion (as the book points out, it cannot not be implemented). The good news is that I was internally conflicted (over which option towards which one should nudge another) and I think most readers will be as well.
The opening story of the school cafeteria sets the stage well and makes the premise clear: people make choices and the way we structure those choices influences the choices they make whether we intend to influence them or not. In light of this, why not choose to influence people to make good choices?
The difficulty is in determining what the good choices are. The book argues that the good choices are those that the people would make for themselves if they had all the best information. However, one still has to ask how one can trust the government to provide all the best information and to even use that with integrity to help people make good choices. It is a difficult dilemma - particularly in modern America where there is such distrust for government.
At the same time, I would certainly rather the school cook place the healthy foods where my child is most likely to choose them than to place the unhealthy foods there. That is a pretty clear decision; however, how does one decide on issues like health insurance and savings. The book suggests that we should make individuals "work" to opt-out of insurance or savings rather than to "work" to opt-in. The point is that people are more likely to have health insurance if the default, with a new job, is that it is taken out of their pay. Additionally, people are more likely to invest in a 401k if the default is that it is taken out of their pay and, unless they make a decision to do otherwise (presumably at the time of hire), it will continue to be.
This seems like a good practice until you realize that the company is defaulting to taking money from the employee and using it for the "employee's good". I can certainly see a time period of struggle where employees may be suing their employers for taking their money without their "explicit permission". That is that since it was a default and not a granting of permission it could be problematic. I supposed time and courts will tell.
This is a tremendous book that brings an important topic to the forefront. Do we need to consciously help people make "better" decisions or can we allow them to make "mistakes" and learn or not learn from those? It does seem to have implications on free will, but at the same time so does doing nothing. This, I'm sure, will become an excellent debate in the coming decades.
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Customer Reviews for Yale University Press,0300122233,9780300122237,0300122233,330.019 |
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Books : Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness Customer Reviews
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